Rescue Me
by EmiQueenieArrow
Summary: AU. Severide leaves for Spain with his girlfriend and things at 51 change. Casey's cousin Cyra Birch takes his place as squad lieutenant. Can they get over their problems and work together to keep 51 working?
1. Chapter 1

Rescue Me

"Men. We have a new person for squad. They'll be coming today."

"I still can't believe Severide left." A squad member said with his feet on the table. Shay looked at him intensely before looking away.

"Sorry I'm late." A short blonde woman walked in with a duffle bag over her shoulder.

"No way." Dawson looked at Casey when he said this.

"What? Who is it?"

"Matt." The woman had stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at the lieutenant. "Great." She didn't sound too happy.

"Do you two know each other?" Chief looked at them intently but they didn't speak. "My office now." They followed him into his office and he shut the door. "What is it? Ex? Old business partner?"

"She's my cousin. And let's just say that part of the family doesn't get along with my side."

"And whys that?"

"They put people in key positions so that the rest of their family in the gang can get away with things."

"That is not true and you know it!"

Outside the office others were standing and watching through the glass. "I'm willing to bet one night stand." Mouch and Herrmann nodded together and continued to watch.

Dawson's guess was next. "I bet it's a family member." No seemed to agree.

"No way. They don't even look alike in any way." Back in the office Casey was trying to convince the chief that she shouldn't stay at the station.

"She can not be trusted."

"Funny. My rank says otherwise." She took a step forward and the chief put his hands up.

"Enough. I don't care what problems you two have, work them out. Lieutenant Birch is staying because there is a shortage of people. Once we figure something out with squad, I will transfer her back to her original station. Now get out." The chief sat down at his desk and the cousins left, passing the curious men without saying anything.

Mouch was sitting on the couch with the squad lieutenant. "So. Birch."

"I have a first name you know."

"What is it pants?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's Cyra."

"What?" He looked at her with doubt in his face. "That's not a name."

"Excuse me. Anything can be a name. There are people named after cars so my name isn't that weird. And isn't your name Mouch as in half man half couch?" Casey watched the two talking as he shook his head.

"So who is she?" Dawson was putting her coffee mug in the sink.

"Oh. Uh, don't worry about it. Okay?" He looked at her with a smile on his face. Her heart fluttered and she nodded even though she wanted to know who the mystery person was.

The tone alerted the ambulance, truck, and squad to an accident. Birch ran to the squad and pulled on her turnout pants and boots before hoping in the passenger seat. The sirens were going and the horns were blaring as the emergency vehicles took off to the accident. Birch shook her head as she saw two people were ejected from their vehicles. She checked their pulses and shook her head. "Two DOA." Shay and Dawson nodded and they headed to the five car pile up.

Birch kneeled by the door of the Camry that was crushed under the bed of the truck. There was a bloody teenaged girl crying. "Help me! Please! I'm stuck!"

"Hold on sweetie. I'm going to get you out." She inspected the door and saw that it wasn't too badly damaged. Although she had to use a little bit of extra pull, the door opened relatively easily. The girl reached for her but she had to stop her. "Wait, stop. Don't move alright?" Birch tried to stand up to call a paramedic but the girl clutched onto her arms.

"No! Don't leave me!"

"I'm not. I need to get you a medic." The girls grip relaxed a little and she stepped a little bit out of the wreck. "Shay! Dawson! I need a medic!" Shay answered her yelling. "I don't know if there are neck injuries."

"Alright. Go help the truck open up the doors to the SUV." Birch nodded and walked over the the SUV. Casey was waiting for the Jaws of Life to get the door open. There was a mother trapped in the driver seat but the kid was in the back seat. His voice was ragged and he was crying for his mom. Mouch was talking to him, trying to keep him distracted. Birch grabbed a Halligan bar and started to pry open the child's door. It popped open and Mouch picked him up. At the same time they had freed the mother and Dawson was checking her injuries.

Mouch's name was called out so the lieutenant was left with the kid. "Hey. Come on now. Stop crying. They got your mom out."

"She's hurt bad. She might not get better." The kid was only about five year olds and his face was breaking her heart.

"That woman that is checking her for injuries name is Gabby. She is very good at what she does."

"Promise?"

"I promise." The kid wiped his tears and Birch looked at the cuts on his face. "These aren't bad." Shay was walking in the direction to ambulance 61.

"Dawson!"

"Okay!" She helped the kids mother stand up where she walked her to the extra ambulance before hoping in the back of 61.

"Mommy!" The kid ran to her side as she rolled her neck around a little.

"Brian!" Her arms latched onto her son.

"Hey." Birch jumped and turned to face her cousin.

"Holy crap. Don't do that to me."

"Sorry." He gave her a strange look. "I overheard what you said to the kid. How did you know who Dawson was?"

"I read everyone's files. I know about everyone in the station."

"Oh. Great."

"How is the other driver?"

"DOA."

"Half of the people in this crash dead." Her head started shaking and she walked off toward the squad. She had her elbow rested on the window as she covered her face.

"Something wrong boss?" She looked at the driver.

"No." Her face looked blank as she continued. "I never got to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant Cyra Birch and obviously I am taking Severide's place for a little while."

"Nice to meet ya. And on behalf of Station 51, welcome." Her mouth moved in a hint of a smile but it never showed. They got back to the station and Birch was sitting with the others in the common area. She was sitting with Mouch and Cruz on the couch.

"Is there really nothing else on?"

"I get the same crap from Shay and Dawson. You are in a fire house full of men, we are going to watch football."

"Whoa there bucko. I was just going to say the Dolphins suck. We should be watching the Bears game." All the men looked at her but she was oblivious. Mills smacked the metal bowl he was mixing food in on the counter. She reacted to the noise and saw them. "What?"

"You like football?"

"Duh. My dad raised me like a boy. I thought that was pretty obvious." She raised an eyebrow at Mills.

"Not really." She simply shrugged.

"Whatever. You just don't know me well enough. Switch the game Mouch. Don't just sit there with your mouth open like that. It's gross, weird, and rude." He closed his mouth slowly and switched the game.


	2. Chapter 2

Rescue Me

Cyra was walking down the hall when someone pulled her to the side. "Whoa. Seriously?" Birch pulled away from Casey but he held onto her arm tight. "What do you want?"

"We need to talk about this work situation. After shift, come over so we can talk."

"Fine. Whatever." She finally freed her arm and looked at him like he was some sort of freak. They walked into the common area and people stared.

"Seriously. What is it between you guys?" Otis stood by the squad table in the apparatus bay.

"Stay out of it or else you will regret it. Okay?" The fireman backed up with his hands up.

"Sorry." He left her by herself.

By the end of shift the tension was even worse. She was standing out by his truck. "Where's your ride?"

"Someone is borrowing it for today. I hope you don't mind."

"It's fine. Let's just go." They drove in silence to his house. Once inside she nodded.

"Nice."

"It's enough." They stood in the sunlight streaming through the windows as a few cars passed by. "So let's get our problems out in the open."

"You are an arrogant, closed minded jerk that only sees the bad in my family which is hard! You pretend to be so great but you are nothing especially to me!"

"Your family has killed innocent people!"

"Some of them, yes. But the ones like me haven't done anything. I'm from a ranch in California. So get your head out of your ass and take a good look at what you've ignored. When was the last time that we just talked or caught up?"

"I can't remember."

"I can. We were 5 years old. Do you know how pathetic that is?"

"Yeah. I remember when I was 18 I got a phone call from your brother asking me to bail him out of prison."

"So a few of us chose the wrong path. There is still good in the family and you should be old enough now to see that. Don't act like your family doesn't have its flaws. Your mother did kill your father."

"We do not talk about it!" Matt ran his hand through his hair and shook his head.

"Well I finished my rant. Your turn." She sat on the couch with her arms crossed.

"You think you know everything and you are always in some sort of trouble no matter what! You only think of yourself and that's it! You talk about home and family but at the end of the day you don't have your dream family. And you take that frustration out on everyone else. It's not fair. Now I'm done."

"Alright. Now we move on. We talk about normal things."

"We need to talk more about this. We have to explain our sides and kill the hatred."

"What's the point? You've held a grudge for over 25 years. Unless you actually want to make progress."

"Excuse me? You're the one that insisted on being rude at the station!"

"Is that why you told the chief that he couldn't trust me!?"

"He can't!"

"See! This is what I mean! You don't want to fix it. No no. You just want to make things worse!"

"I do not. I want to fix things just as much as you do. Well assuming you want to fix things."

"Of course I do! Would I be here if I didn't?" There was a knocking on the door. Casey opened it and was taken aback.

"Excuse me sir. Is there a problem here?" It was a police officer. "I was walking by and I could hear you two yelling. What's the problem?"

"We had no clue we were that loud. It's just a family thing."

"As long as you keep it down we won't have any problems."

"We can do that. Thank you." The cop smiled and left the two alone again. "Bet you got nervous when he was at the door."

"Matt, I swear. See that's the stuff you shouldn't say. We would get along so much better if you didn't."

"So what do we do now?" Birch checked her watch before opening the door and walking out onto the sidewalk.

"I don't care how you treat me anymore." A sleek black car pulled up and the driver got out. He had brown hair and was very preppy and clean cut. "Hello Jonathan."

"Hey." He handed her a cup of coffee and they kissed before getting in the car and leaving. Casey put his hands out as she drove away. They fell back to his side and he went inside shaking his head.

The next shift started like the others. Until Birch and Casey saw each other. "So. You do finally care about someone else besides yourself." Herrmann and Mouch watched them talk to each other in the hall with amusement at first.

"But your head is still up your ass. So I guess things can't get better until you do your part."

The amusement faded. "Why do you have to be like this? Did prison change you this much?"

"Prison? I haven't ever been arrested!"

"Your brother called me saying that you both had been arrested for carrying concealed weapons."

"That never happened. If it had would I be here? Would I have this job? Probably not. Like I said before, think." Birch turned and saw the two firemen. "What?" Her words were harsh.

For three shifts it carried on. Finally the chief decided to intervene. "Birch. Follow me." She followed him to the briefing room. She saw Casey sitting on the table. Before she could say anything the doors slammed shut and the other men were standing outside. "You two will work this out! You have to trust and respect one another to make this station function properly. You will be in this room until you fix things." He went to the door and they stood dumbstruck. Otis and Tony stood by the door with their arms crossed. Occasionally they would glance back into the room. The cousins sat across the table from each other.

"We have to do this. The men look to us to be nice and caring toward everyone. How does it look to them that we don't get along?"

"You're right."

"So let's start over. Forget everything that we know about each other and hold nothing against each other."

"I agree." She actually had a real smile on her face when she stood up and held out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Cyra Birch of the Chicago Fire Department."

He took her hand and shook it with a huge smile on his face. "Lieutenant Matt Casey, truck 81."

"Nice to meet you. Do you enjoy working here?"

"I love it. I always wanted to be a fireman and I did it."

"Not the same with me. I grew up with different goals and went to college but somehow I ended up in the fire academy instead."

"Wait, really? What did you study?"

"Culinary arts. While I was in college I worked at an animal shelter too."

"I had no idea."

"Yeah I'm actually just full of surprises. I used to be a dancer too."

"That's great."

They talked until the next run. The alarm went off and they ran to their vehicles. The building they arrived at was falling apart. There was screaming coming from one of the windows. "Birch and Casey on ladder." The truck was moved and the ladder started going up. Birch went first and when she got to the window a frantic woman nearly jumped out on her.

"Whoa! Hold on. Calm down." She held onto the back of her shirt trying to keep her from moving too much. It didn't work. She fell over the edge. Birch reached down and grabbed onto her arm. The woman's screams alerted everyone to trouble. She probably weighed about 160 pounds and Birch was struggling to hold her up.

"Don't let go of me!" She started trying to climb up Birch's arm.

"Stop moving!" Casey tried to climb up farther. "Stay there." Pulling her up, the woman made it onto the ladder underneath Birch. She simply shook her head and returned to the window. There was a man coughing from the smoke and ash. "Sir! Over here!" He made his way to the window. "Turn around and start coming down slowly." He followed her instructions and they made it safely onto the ground.

"My shoulder hurts. It's that fireman's fault!" The woman pointed to Cyra.

"That's not something you hear everyday." Chief Boden shook his head in disappointment at the woman's rude and ungrateful behavior.

"I guess she just doesn't realize it's her fault. If she hadn't jumped out at me and panicked maybe her shoulder wouldn't hurt."

"Yeah. Did you fix things with Casey?"

She looked at the chief, not expecting him to change to conversation to abruptly. "Things are going to get better. We definitely made progress. And maybe, if I can, instead of going back to my station I could work for 51 permanently."

He smiled at her. "We can talk about that later."

The chief walked away when Casey approached her. "Do you lift weights too?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind. Good job."

"Thanks."


	3. Chapter 3

Rescue Me

After a few weeks, Cyra was officially transferred to 51. She was happy and normal while her and Casey grew closer. Then one day, she starts wearing long sleeves and staying quiet and to herself. Nobody knew what was wrong. They didn't even have a guess.

Whispers started going around. The following shift she came in with a black eye and a cut on her lip. "What the hell happened to you lieutenant?" Capp asked her when he saw her face. Casey looked up from the paper he was reading and stood up when he saw her.

"It's none of your business Capp." She locked eyes with Casey. "I just had a little mishap with the stairs." Birch left before anyone could say anything.

"That's impossible."

"Why do you say that Capp?"

"She lives in a one story house with her boyfriend and son." Casey had a new feeling of dread. He found her in the locker room staring at the floor in front of her locker.

"Hey."

"What do you want?" He sat next to her and she flinched a little when he reached for her.

"Jonathan did this, didn't he?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Capp told me you live in a one story house."

"So?"

"You didn't fall down any stairs. What are you going to do?"

"Nothing. He didn't do anything."

"Why are you defending him?"

"I'm not because he didn't do it." The alarm interrupted the conversation. "Thank god." She ran out to her truck and climbed in while Capp started asking her questions.

"You live in a one story house, what stairs could you have fallen down?"

"Shut up and focus on getting your turnout on."

It was another car accident but this time it was a car and a motorcycle. The motorcycle rider had his arm stuck inside the wheel of the car. The driver was panicking on the sidewalk. Cyra tried to figure out how the free his arm while Shay and Dawson started to treat him as best they could. Going under the car and using a flashlight Birch bit her lip. "Hows it look?"

"Shay, look." The paramedic crawled underneath and looked upward.

"Okay. We need to tell Boden."

They got up from underneath the car stood by the chief. "His arm is completely mangled under there. I don't think there is a way to save the arm." Cyra put her flashlight away and put her helmet back on as she shook her head.

Shay shook her head. "There isn't a way. It has to come off."

"Squad and Truck, make sure no one can see especially the driver. Do what you have to Shay." They went to do their duty.

"Alright, everyone back!" People didn't move very quick as Birch and Cruz pushed them back.

"Hurry, we don't have a lot of time. He's going into shock." Dawson called out.

"Everyone back up now! We need room to work. Ma'am, go with Lieutenant Casey." Birch pointed the driver in the direction of Matt and he took her to stand behind the truck. The man let out a yell and some bystanders started regaining interest. "I said back up. So listen to me."

Finally the police arrived and helped with the crowd. Pretty soon the paramedics were speeding off to the hospital with the man who was barely alive.

"What do we do with the car? It's still got part of the arm in it."

"The police said they would handle it. We should get back to the station." Everyone had somber expressions as they got back in the house. The squad members sat at their table in the bay.

"Chief can I talk to you in private?" Casey followed Boden into his office. "I'm assuming you've noticed how bad Cyra's injuries are."

"Yes. That seems like a lot for falling down the stairs."

"She lives in a one story. And we both know she's not clumsy in any aspect so her falling down steps is very unlikely."

"Then how do you think she got hurt?"

"I think it was her boyfriend Jonathan."

"Why do you say that?"

"When I asked her about it she avoided looking at me and was kinda dodgy with her answers."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Can't you help? In any way? Like try talking to her."

"I can try. You know her better than any one here. You know she's stubborn."

"I have a feeling she'll listen to you."

"I'll try."

"Thanks." Casey went into the kitchen and sat down with Dawson. She was looking at a cat on her screen. "What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking of adopting a cat. The place is a little lonely."

"Oh that's nice. You seem like a cat person."

"And whys that?"

"You've both got an attitude." He gently hit him on the arm and kept searching.


End file.
